By Dhiladhila Magazine · Issue 19

Tourism sells silence and dark skies, but it runs on power – and a firmer national grid quietly helps.

Namibia sells remoteness: desert horizons, dark skies and lodges far from any town. Yet that experience still runs on electricity, and a grid investment aimed at the national network reaches the tourism economy in ways a visitor never notices. The World Bank’s May 2024 loan to NamPower – N$2.6 billion, or US$138.5 million – is one of them.

The current beneath the quiet

Deep-desert camps often stand off-grid, run on solar and battery systems that suit a country with close to 300 sunny days a year. But the gateway towns, airports and supply chains that carry guests to those camps sit on the national grid, and their reliability shapes the trip long before the lodge does. A stronger, better-stored network firms up the whole journey behind the postcard.

The battery and transmission line in the package serve that connected backbone – steadier power for the towns tourists pass through, and less dependence on imported electricity for the country hosting them. Renewable capacity that the grid can actually carry is also the story many travellers now want to hear about a destination.

The off-grid lodge sells the silence; the national grid still gets the guest there.

For a lodge operator or a tourism investor, the grid loan is a small but real tailwind: a firmer national network behind the towns and transport that feed remote destinations, and a clean-energy story that fits what Namibia already sells. The decision it invites is whether to lean further into renewable, reliable power as part of the guest experience, rather than treating it as backstage plumbing.

Sources: Reuters; Renewable Energy Opportunities for Namibia (IEA); Off-grid safari lodges install solar-powered systems (SolarQuarter)